Work package 1 WP1

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Work package 1 (WP1) Topic Cyanobacterial
Dormant Forms in an Aquatic environment Objective
Establishment of dormant stage/ Induction of
akinetes in cyanobacteria
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Akinete formation triggers and processes
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• D4 and D8
• Basic studies to reveal conditions and mechanisms
  involved in induction of akinetes formation,
  dormancy and desiccation Nutrient
• Depletion (P), Light, Temp, O2 (hypoxia)
• Specialized envelopes
• Storage of metabolites carbohydrates,
  cyanophycin (N) enzymes involved, e.g
  cyanophycine synthase
• Tolerance to stress heat shock
  proteins/chaperones-function in maintaining
  structural integrity of biomolecules.
• Tryptophan, aspartate, aspargin, phenyl-alanine
  and serine triggered akinete formation.
• Mature akinetes
• Respiration and Photosynthetic apparatus (is
  there pigments production?)
• O2 evolution/consumption
• Reduced energy production?
• To collect adequate material for further
  genomic, proteomic and metabolomic studies.

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Genetic regulation of Akinete
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• D5, D6, D7
• Development of molecular tools for cyanobacteria
• Genes that are expressed
• Subtractive c-DNA libraries from A. ovalisporum
• Akinetes as compared to a culture producing
  akinetes and to a culture without
• akinete production
• Expression studies
• Identification of proteins found specifically in
  akinetes
• Metabolomic profiling for carbohydrates
  associated with dormancy